After a short-lived peace the cimarrones again took the field, reënforced by maltreated or discontented negro fugitives from the mines, and committed such depredations that the king resolved on a war of extermination against them and their allies. In a cédula dated 23d of May 1578 he appointed his factor and veedor Pedro de Ortega Valencia, captain general of the forces levied for that purpose, with instructions not to desist until the rebels were vanquished. Funds were to be drawn freely from the royal treasury. Panamá and the adjoining provinces of Quito and Cartago were enjoined to provide all necessary supplies, and the Casa de la Contratacion de Seville was to furnish four hundred arquebuses and a supply of ammunition. The Spaniards were only partially successful, and in the following year the king found it necessary to address the president and oidores of the audiencia, urging them to renewed efforts, but in vain. In 1596 the cimarrones, in concert with buccaneers, opened a road from their own town to the Chagre River only a league below the highway to Venta de las Cruces, their object being to steal and secrete treasure and merchandise. On the 25th of August the king peremptorily orders the destruction of the road and the execution of the ringleaders, but nevertheless the cimarrones in collusion with English corsairs for years set the Spaniards at defiance.
SLAVE-DEALING.
The regulations framed during the sixteenth century concerning negroes, whether bond or free, prescribed with the utmost minuteness their deportment, their social relations, and the restrictions under which they were to live.[XXII‑5] It was provided in the case of runaways that pardon should only be extended once, and never to the leaders of a revolt. One fifth of the cost incurred in their capture was to be met by the royal treasury and the remainder by the owners; and all expeditions were to be conducted by experienced officers, the property value of the negro being so great that his recovery could not be intrusted to inferior hands.
To engage in the importation of slaves it was necessary first to obtain a royal license, a privilege jealously guarded, and seldom if ever granted to Spain's ancient rivals, the Portuguese, but freely bestowed on the English, who gradually monopolized the trade. So great were the profits that Portuguese and English alike were found continually violating the law and setting the king at defiance.[XXII‑6] The regulations embraced also their intercourse with Indians, so as to discourage as much as possible their association with lawless bands, dangerous to Spanish security, and prejudicial to peaceable natives; for, with the presumption so common among lower races and classes, the negro failed not to take advantage of any privilege he might obtain over his red-skinned neighbor.[XXII‑7] Such checks proved of little use, however, since they also applied in part at least to Spanish task-masters. Indeed, in a royal cédula issued in 1593, attention is called to the fact that no one had been brought to justice for any of the extortions or cruelties to which the Indians had been subjected.[XXII‑8] Other stringent laws were issued, but they came too late, or were neglected like the rest. Under the yoke of their various oppressors the native population of the Isthmus gradually disappeared, and toward the close of the century their numbers had become insignificant.
In the affairs of Panamá, we enter now an era of decline. Progress hitherto on the Isthmus has been on no permanent basis. For a time the gold and pearls of seaboard and islands kept alive the spirit of speculation, which was swollen to greater dimensions by the inflowing treasures from Peru and Chile, and from scores of other places in South and North America. When these began to diminish, commerce fell off, and as it had little else to depend upon there was necessarily a reaction.
Panamá had comparatively but little indigenous wealth and was largely dependent for prosperity on Spain's colonial policy. Unfortunately this was characterized by a short-sightedness which eventually proved disastrous both to the province and the empire. The great fleets which arrived from Spain came in reduced numbers, at longer intervals, and with depleted stores. In 1589, ninety-four vessels reached the Isthmus laden with merchandise; sixteen years later the fleet mustered only seventeen ships.[XXII‑9] To the depredations of buccaneers which will be hereafter described this state of affairs may in part be attributed, but other causes were at work. The king of Spain had already appeared before his subjects at Panamá in the character of a royal mendicant;[XXII‑10] and now he laid restrictions on their trade which could not fail to prove disastrous to the commercial interests of the city.
ASIATIC TRADE.
Hitherto there had been a large and lucrative traffic with the Philippine Islands, yielding often six-fold increase to the fortunate trader.[XXII‑11] But the cupidity of the monarch prompted more and more restrictive measures, until it was altogether forbidden to Panamá, and indeed to all the West Indies save New Spain, the king being determined to have what was known as the Asiatic trade monopolized by Castilian merchants.[XXII‑12] No Chinese goods were to be brought to Panamá and the other provinces, even from New Spain. None were to be used there, except such as were in actual use at date of the royal commands, and any surplus was to be carried to Spain within four years.
Of course the American provinces were gradually developing home industries, and bringing into the market home productions that displaced to a certain extent goods from which Spain had hitherto made large profits. Thus Peru supplied wine, leather, and oil; soap was manufactured in Guayaquil and Nicaragua; Campeche yielded wax, Guayaquil, Riobamba, and Puerto Viejo, cordage for ships, and Nicaragua a good quality of pitch. Quito and other places manufactured cloths, and New Spain silken and woolen goods. Had Philip adopted a generous colonial policy he would have fostered and profited by these new industries, but all fiscal regulations looked to the advancement of Spanish commerce without regard for the development of trade within the colonies.
WINE AND TOBACCO.